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A fine prison, indeed. |
Todd - Blood Prison was an efficient scare machine, showing improvements in many areas that we highlighted over the past few years.
Let’s start with ticketing and wait times. Ticketing this year was done on a time basis which GREATLY improved the length of the queues and crowds waiting on premises. Less queue crowds means better parking, faster access to the food vendors, shorter wait times for the bathroom facilities (port-a-potties; for some reason the bathrooms were closed when we went) and most obvious less wait time for entry. Having less human congestion made getting around much easier and accessible.
This rolls down into the crowd experience in the haunt. We noticed a VAST improvement to the conga line effect while inside. If I had to guess, the timed ticketing relieved some of the pressure to feed people through at an accelerated rate. On top that, I can recall at least four reset points where the queue was re-paced. Obviously because this haunt has four very long lengths in the cell blocks, you’re not going to get them to yourself as you would a small room, however, this rolls into the next improvement…
More stuff! I noticed more props and scenery in the cell blocks than ever before. With various items staggered on either side of the walking area, it really cut down the line of sight distance which helped us from seeing other haunt goers in these long stretches. Even better, the things in each of the four stretches were in theme with that wing. The clown wing had numerous gigantic jack-in-the-boxes, the “aftermath” wing had a tank…yes, a tank! The hospital wing had more gurneys than I could count and the cemetery had eerily simple crosses made of wood staked into mounds of dirt – one of which had a crucified victim on it.
The last improvement from the past few years was the actors and overall staffing. Actor counts were up which makes an enormous difference in this haunt because of its sheer size. The actor counts felt adequate in the more permanent sections of the haunt, but the cell blocks were still a little lean, though better than last year by my recollection. As touch pass wearers, we got a decent amount of moderate contact. I got some head scratches from the Warden’s Widow as we entered (felt good!) and a punch in the arm from the crashed plane’s stewardess for not helping enough (felt not so good….she hits hard!). Some actors were more comfortable with touching than others. The very first we encountered at the house grabbed me and shoved me to the front porch, for example. Others were just fine with a more gentle pat on the arm. One of the clowns stuck her finger up my nose…and then Paul’s which got me wondering does she do this often? Yikes. However, seeing more actors inside was great to see and most did a fine job!
Overall, I found the haunt to be very enjoyable – more so than the past two years, which isn’t exactly a fair statement, admittedly, since 2020 was vastly affected by COVID regulations and last year was awful with staffing industry-wide. However, despite those challenges, Blood Prison came back with all kinds of optimizations that did not go unnoticed. If I had any criticisms to offer, it would be that in my opinion, the actors could have been spread out just a bit more. The opening house felt as if it was very well staffed, but the dark cell blocks on the low level had only two actors by my count. I would have expected just a few more to pop out of those open cells where they can’t be seen ahead of time and it felt like a bit of missed opportunity. All in all, if that’s my biggest head scratcher of this visit, then I say Blood Prison 2022 was a big WIN!
Let’s start with ticketing and wait times. Ticketing this year was done on a time basis which GREATLY improved the length of the queues and crowds waiting on premises. Less queue crowds means better parking, faster access to the food vendors, shorter wait times for the bathroom facilities (port-a-potties; for some reason the bathrooms were closed when we went) and most obvious less wait time for entry. Having less human congestion made getting around much easier and accessible.
This rolls down into the crowd experience in the haunt. We noticed a VAST improvement to the conga line effect while inside. If I had to guess, the timed ticketing relieved some of the pressure to feed people through at an accelerated rate. On top that, I can recall at least four reset points where the queue was re-paced. Obviously because this haunt has four very long lengths in the cell blocks, you’re not going to get them to yourself as you would a small room, however, this rolls into the next improvement…
More stuff! I noticed more props and scenery in the cell blocks than ever before. With various items staggered on either side of the walking area, it really cut down the line of sight distance which helped us from seeing other haunt goers in these long stretches. Even better, the things in each of the four stretches were in theme with that wing. The clown wing had numerous gigantic jack-in-the-boxes, the “aftermath” wing had a tank…yes, a tank! The hospital wing had more gurneys than I could count and the cemetery had eerily simple crosses made of wood staked into mounds of dirt – one of which had a crucified victim on it.
The last improvement from the past few years was the actors and overall staffing. Actor counts were up which makes an enormous difference in this haunt because of its sheer size. The actor counts felt adequate in the more permanent sections of the haunt, but the cell blocks were still a little lean, though better than last year by my recollection. As touch pass wearers, we got a decent amount of moderate contact. I got some head scratches from the Warden’s Widow as we entered (felt good!) and a punch in the arm from the crashed plane’s stewardess for not helping enough (felt not so good….she hits hard!). Some actors were more comfortable with touching than others. The very first we encountered at the house grabbed me and shoved me to the front porch, for example. Others were just fine with a more gentle pat on the arm. One of the clowns stuck her finger up my nose…and then Paul’s which got me wondering does she do this often? Yikes. However, seeing more actors inside was great to see and most did a fine job!
Overall, I found the haunt to be very enjoyable – more so than the past two years, which isn’t exactly a fair statement, admittedly, since 2020 was vastly affected by COVID regulations and last year was awful with staffing industry-wide. However, despite those challenges, Blood Prison came back with all kinds of optimizations that did not go unnoticed. If I had any criticisms to offer, it would be that in my opinion, the actors could have been spread out just a bit more. The opening house felt as if it was very well staffed, but the dark cell blocks on the low level had only two actors by my count. I would have expected just a few more to pop out of those open cells where they can’t be seen ahead of time and it felt like a bit of missed opportunity. All in all, if that’s my biggest head scratcher of this visit, then I say Blood Prison 2022 was a big WIN!
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The best visit yet? It might just be! |
Paul - That's what I'm talking about!
This year's visit to Blood Prison was one of my favorites of all time! Almost every nitpick I had from last year was solved, and they made things even more over-the-top.
Once we pulled into our free parking spot and yet again stood in awe of Mansfield's Ohio State Reformatory, we finally collected ourselves and started making our way inside. There's a new timed ticketing system this year that reduces the amount of time you'll need to stand in line. You'd better purchase ahead though because they can (and do) sell out!
Once inside, the chaos began. From beginning to end, I was constantly in suspense of what was coming. In years past I had some complaints of the action letting up in various places, and being able to see clear from one side of an area to another. Those complaints are no more.
The "haunted house" portion at the beginning was wild. Very enthusiastic and well-placed actors, perfectly-creepy sets, great lighting- it was easily the best I've seen it. Following that was a trip through solitary. Dark, loud, and you never knew when someone or something would come out of that darkness to get you.
After a quick re-queue we headed into the first cell block. The cell block scenes are what set Blood Prison apart from the rest, because the sets are built around the immensely-imposing old cell blocks. There are 4 scenes you'll go through and this year every one of them was improved. Tighter, twistier, more actors, shorter sight-lines, darker... Just excellent.
You'll start out in a prison break area where you'll run into all kinds of angry escaped inmates, then into the war area, which is full of searchlights, crashed planes, gas mask wearing soldiers, and the occasional tank to really spice things up. You then proceed into the second cell block which houses CarnEvil and the morgue/church/cemetery area. All 4 areas were noticeably scarier than last year. They built the sets to really limit your visibility to what's coming next, the lighting is much darker, the actors are pretty intense -especially if you opt for the touch pass. The touch at Blood Prison is relatively mild compared to some haunts we visit, but I think it really adds to the experience and the actors use it very well.
You wrap things up by twisting and turning through various hallways and mini-scenes until you reach the basement. The basement is kind of a mad-scientist area with all kinds of strange experiments happening. Usually by the time we get down there we're in a giant conga line and lose some of the suspense, but this year we somehow never caught up the group in front and it was quite a bit scarier. I think they may have dimmed things down a bit and there were definitely a few changes noticed, so those were likely part of the improvement as well.
This ended up being one of my favorite visits to Blood Prison. I believe they were still a bit short on actors in spots, but nothing like all of the 2021 haunts seemed to be experiencing, and nothing that made me feel like I missed anything. I had a blast and can't wait to visit next time!
This year's visit to Blood Prison was one of my favorites of all time! Almost every nitpick I had from last year was solved, and they made things even more over-the-top.
Once we pulled into our free parking spot and yet again stood in awe of Mansfield's Ohio State Reformatory, we finally collected ourselves and started making our way inside. There's a new timed ticketing system this year that reduces the amount of time you'll need to stand in line. You'd better purchase ahead though because they can (and do) sell out!
Once inside, the chaos began. From beginning to end, I was constantly in suspense of what was coming. In years past I had some complaints of the action letting up in various places, and being able to see clear from one side of an area to another. Those complaints are no more.
The "haunted house" portion at the beginning was wild. Very enthusiastic and well-placed actors, perfectly-creepy sets, great lighting- it was easily the best I've seen it. Following that was a trip through solitary. Dark, loud, and you never knew when someone or something would come out of that darkness to get you.
After a quick re-queue we headed into the first cell block. The cell block scenes are what set Blood Prison apart from the rest, because the sets are built around the immensely-imposing old cell blocks. There are 4 scenes you'll go through and this year every one of them was improved. Tighter, twistier, more actors, shorter sight-lines, darker... Just excellent.
You'll start out in a prison break area where you'll run into all kinds of angry escaped inmates, then into the war area, which is full of searchlights, crashed planes, gas mask wearing soldiers, and the occasional tank to really spice things up. You then proceed into the second cell block which houses CarnEvil and the morgue/church/cemetery area. All 4 areas were noticeably scarier than last year. They built the sets to really limit your visibility to what's coming next, the lighting is much darker, the actors are pretty intense -especially if you opt for the touch pass. The touch at Blood Prison is relatively mild compared to some haunts we visit, but I think it really adds to the experience and the actors use it very well.
You wrap things up by twisting and turning through various hallways and mini-scenes until you reach the basement. The basement is kind of a mad-scientist area with all kinds of strange experiments happening. Usually by the time we get down there we're in a giant conga line and lose some of the suspense, but this year we somehow never caught up the group in front and it was quite a bit scarier. I think they may have dimmed things down a bit and there were definitely a few changes noticed, so those were likely part of the improvement as well.
This ended up being one of my favorite visits to Blood Prison. I believe they were still a bit short on actors in spots, but nothing like all of the 2021 haunts seemed to be experiencing, and nothing that made me feel like I missed anything. I had a blast and can't wait to visit next time!
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Touched by the Warden's Widow |
Emily - Blood Prison has a certain presence, screaming gothic and Halloween, without even trying. I am always stunned by how amazing the building is. It is the main reason I love visiting, but the haunt was just as stunning this year! Getting into the haunt, parking was much easier, which we later learned was due to the new timed ticketing service. Timed tickets seems to be helping several haunts this year. Blood Prison has utilized it well, definitely helping control crowds and potty lines. We love that.
The haunt was more staffed than last year and it shows. There were different sets, worked by multiple actors, and they were perfectly aggressive! I also saw an improvement with the conga line that usually comes with the Blood Prison experience. Which is another benefit of timed ticketing, I think. There was additional effort to hold between groups, and while we did still end up smooshed together eventually, we still were separated from other groups a fair amount. Still room for improvement there, but overall, better. The carnival set was awesome this year. The animatronics, paintings, and the actors did an awesome job with that experience. It was very immersive.
Blood Prison was impressive! Timed ticketing, a decent set of actors, and some additional usage of space in the cell blocks really made the difference. That, and I finally got to see and hear the scream of the Warden’s Widow!
The haunt was more staffed than last year and it shows. There were different sets, worked by multiple actors, and they were perfectly aggressive! I also saw an improvement with the conga line that usually comes with the Blood Prison experience. Which is another benefit of timed ticketing, I think. There was additional effort to hold between groups, and while we did still end up smooshed together eventually, we still were separated from other groups a fair amount. Still room for improvement there, but overall, better. The carnival set was awesome this year. The animatronics, paintings, and the actors did an awesome job with that experience. It was very immersive.
Blood Prison was impressive! Timed ticketing, a decent set of actors, and some additional usage of space in the cell blocks really made the difference. That, and I finally got to see and hear the scream of the Warden’s Widow!
Questions? Have a story to share? Leave it in the comments!